Sri Lanka to release 136,000 Tamils

SRI LANKA TO RELEASE 136,000 TAMILS

All ethnic-minority Tamil detainees will be freed from government camps on December 1, a senior Sri Lankan official said today.

Some 300,000 war-displaced Tamils were forced into camps after fleeing the final months of the government’s decades-long war with the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, which ended in May.

The Tamils are held against their will in overcrowded camps with poor sanitation. More than half were released in recent months amid pressure from rights group and foreign governments.

Authorities say nearly 136,000 people remain detained.

Basil Rajapaksa, a senior adviser to his brother, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, said today the camp’s residents will be free to return to their original villages after December 1.